New York Yankees

Curtis Granderson proclaimed himself to be completely comfortable at the plate before Wednesday’s game against the Orioles at Camden Yards. He said his right forearm, which he fractured in spring training, felt great.

YANKEES (28-17) Curtis Granderson CF Robinson Cano 2B Vernon Wells LF Travis Hafner DH Lyle Overbay 1B David Adams 3B Ichiro Suzuki RF Reid Brignac SS Austin Romine C RHP Hiroki Kuroda (6-2, 1.99) Kuroda vs. Orioles ORIOLES (24-21) Nate McLouth LF Manny Machado 3B Nick Markakis RF Adam Jones DH Chris Davis 1B Matt Wieters C JJ Hardy SS Chris Dickerson CF Alexi Casilla 2B RHP Jason Hammel (5-2, 5.72) Hammel vs. Yankees TIME/TV: 7:05 p.m., YES Network and ESPN WEATHER: It’s been legitimately hot and muggy today. Probably feels hotter than it really is only because it’s been cold for so long, but I was soaked in sweat after walking to the ballpark. Should obviously cool down a little bit tonight. UMPIRES: HP Paul Schrieber, 1B Chad Fairchild, 2B Jeff Kellogg, 3B Eric Cooper FOUR IN A ROMINE: Austin Romine has started each of the last four Yankees games. He is the first Yankees rookie to start four straight games behind the plate since Jorge Posada started 11 in-a-row from in September of 1997. EXTRA, EXTRA: The Yankees have played back-to-back extra-inning games at Camden Yards for the second straight season (also 4/10-11/12 (Yankees won both games)…their loss in Tuesday’s 10-inning game was just their second in their last seven extra-inning games on the road…have not played three straight extra-inning games since 5/13-16/01 (vs. Baltimore and two games at Oakland, all losses). FINAL EXAM: The Yankees are 10-5 in series finales this season, winning four of the last five. They are 5-2 in finales on the road, and 3-3 in rubber games of three-game sets this season. UPDATE, 7:22 p.m.: Two-out solo homer by Markakis has the Orioles in front here in the first. UPDATE, 7:27 p.m.: Two-out, two-run homer by Chris Davis and suddenly it’s a 3-0 game. That happened pretty fast, and the O’s are still batting. UPDATE, 7:32 p.m.: Hard-hit double for Wieters before a fly ball to left gets Kuroda out of the inning. Kuroda faced seven batters that inning, and five of them hit the ball hard — two homers, two deep fly balls and the double off the wall. The weakest-hit ball of the inning was probably Adam Jones’ broken-bat single. UPDATE, 7:55 p.m.: Looked like that ball hit Kuroda in the right calf, but he’s staying in the game with two outs and runners at the corners in the second. Certainly not his cleanest outing of the year. UPDATE, 8:06 p.m.: Curtis Granderson gets his first extra-base hit of the year — a double — and Robinson Cano brings him home with a sharp RBI single. It’s now 3-1 with no outs, one on and the heart of the Yankees order coming to the plate. The post Game 46: Yankees at Orioles appeared first on The LoHud Yankees Blog.

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(Presswire) The Yankees and Orioles have split the first two games of this three-game series, and both games were so close they needed a tenth inning. It’s been a continuation of last year, when these two clubs played tight game after tight game and fought for the division title right down the final week of the season. With all due respect to CC Sabathia, the Yankees are sending their ace to the mound in the series finale today, hoping Hiroki Kuroda can send them into tomorrow’s off-day with a win and a five-game lead over Baltimore. Hopefully this one only takes nine innings. Here’s the lineup that will face righty Jason Hammel… CF Curtis Granderson 2B Robinson Cano LF Vernon Wells DH Travis Hafner 1B Lyle Overbay 3B David Adams RF Ichiro Suzuki SS Reid Brignac C Austin Romine – first rookie to start four straight games behind the plate for the Yankees since Jorge Posada 1997 And on the bump is right-hander Hiroki Kuroda, who will be making his first career start at Camden Yards. He somehow avoided the ballpark last year and never faced the Orioles during interleague play while with the Dodgers. It’s warm, cloudy, and humid in Baltimore, and at some point later tonight it’ll rain. Hopefully long after the game is over. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05pm ET and can be seen on YES locally and ESPN nationally. Enjoy. Rotation Update: Vidal Nuno will start on Saturday, giving Sabathia, Phil Hughes, and Kuroda an extra day or rest. David Phelps is starting Friday as scheduled. Injury Updates: Mark Teixeira (wrist) and Kevin Youkilis (back) both had six at-bats in a simulated game … Eduardo Nunez (ribcage) hit in the cage for the first time since being placed on the DL … Joba Chamberlain (oblique) threw an inning in Extended Spring Training game. A minor league rehab game with High-A Tampa is probably next. Post from: River Ave. Blues A New York Yankees blogGame 46: Aces on the Mound

The Yankees seem to be in little rush to activate Ivan Nova. Down in Tampa, Nova threw a light side today. He’s already pitched in a few extended spring training games, and Girardi said Nova “felt good” today, yet there are very few details about an exact plan for what comes next. “We’ll make sure he feels OK and we’ll go from there,” Girardi said. Nova has shown that he can be a very good big league starter, but he’s also fallen flat through extended stretches. He was brutal in the second half of last year, and he wasn’t pitching especially well before landing on the disabled list this season. With David Phelps more than holding his own in the rotation, and Adam Warren pitching well in a long relief role out of the bullpen, the Yankees don’t seem to be in a real rush to get Nova back. If you assume Joba Chamberlain will eventually replace Dellin Betances, and Andy Pettitte will eventually replace Vidal Nuno — would you be willing to activate Nova at the expense of Phelps or Warren or Shawn Kelley or Preston Claiborne? “We’re able to be patient because we want to make sure he’s healthy when he comes back,” Girardi said. “Then you get in the problem of, he pitches a game and then you’ve got to put him back on the DL. We don’t want to do that.” • Andy Pettitte is going to play catch either Thursday or Friday. “Then we’ll do some long toss, a bullpen and hopefully work it up to a simulated game,” Girardi said. For now, the plan is for Pettitte to do his work with the Yankees, not at the minor league complex. • Will Pettitte be activated the day he’s eligible? “We have it mapped or semi-mapped out,” Girardi said. “I don’t know if it will be the first day, but it will be shortly after that.” • The Yankees are giving CC Sabathia an extra day off this week. He’ll pitch Sunday, not Saturday. The Yankees will go with a rotation of Phelps/Nuno/Sabathia in Tampa. “It’s just the way we did it because we’re in another long stretch here,” Girardi said. “After this day off, it’s 17 days in a row, so that’s how we decided to do it.” • Joba Chamberlain threw 13 pitches in an extended spring training inning. “Felt good,” Girardi said. “We’ll see how he feels tomorrow.” • Mark Teixeira and Kevin Youkilis each got six at-bats in a simulated game today. Is Youkilis getting close to playing in a real game? “I can’t tell you,” Girardi said. “I think you have to give him a few days in a row before you evaluate to make sure that his back is healed and it doesn’t come back. The last two days have been pretty good, so he’s getting closer.” • Eduardo Nunez took batting practice today. He had been doing only tee and toss. • Today, Brett Gardner gets a turn on the bench. “Ich has played pretty well against (Orioles starter Jason) Hammel, has good numbers against Hammel,” Girardi said. “I’m going to move it around a little bit, let it iron itself out. This way Gardy gets a couple days.” • Another start for Hiroki Kuroda. Amazing to think that a little more than a year ago there were questions about whether he could handle the transition from the NL West to the AL East. “People are always going to have that question whenever you go from one league to the other, especially there’s always talk about the NL to the AL,” Girardi said. “If you can pitch, you can pitch; I don’t care where you’re pitching. If you have the ability to command three or four different pitches, you’re going to be successful.” Associated Press photos The post Pregame notes: Yankees taking their time with Nova appeared first on The LoHud Yankees Blog.

CC Sabathia may have given up 21 hits over his last 2 starts, but he's actually gaining some velocity back. On opening day, the lefties' four-seam fastball was sitting at 89.92 mph according to PITCHf/x, but in his start on Monday, Sabathia was sitting at 90.65 mph, and topping out at 92.4. His movement wasn't nearly as impressive as we've seen in the past, and that was probably the reason why he gave up 11 hits with only 2 strike outs to the Orioles. Anyway, here's an updated velocity chart of all the pitches he's thrown this year. He's slowly building up arm strength, which is a great sign, but now we have to watch the movement on his four-seam, which averaged just under 8 inches of vertical movement on Monday. (Compared to 10+ inches on opening day)

The 2013 amateur draft will be held from June 6-8 this year, and between now and then I’m going to highlight some prospects individually rather than lump them together into larger posts. Sean Manaea | LHP Background Undrafted out of an Indiana high school in 2010, Manaea didn’t establish himself as a prospect until he dominated the Cape Cod League last summer. The Indiana State southpaw owns a 1.47 ERA with a 93/27 K/BB in 73.1 innings this year after posting a 3.78 ERA with a 197/85 K/BB in 188 innings during his first two years on campus. Manaea rolled his ankle earlier this spring and that led to hip problems, and he had to skip yesterday’s scheduled start due to shoulder stiffness and continued hip problems according to Jonathan Mayo. He’ll try to start Saturday instead. Scouting Report A big and physical left-hander listed at 6-foot-5 and 235 lbs., Manaea overpowered hitters with a 94-96 mph fastball and a wipeout mid-80s slider on the Cape last summer. He hasn’t shown the same caliber of stuff this spring, instead throwing his fastball in the 88-91 mph range with a few 94s. His slider has sat in the low-80s. Manaea’s third pitch is a split-changeup hybrid in the upper-70s/low-80s that doesn’t do much of anything. No fade, no drop off the table, it just kinda goes. He employs a low Madison Bumgarner-esque arm slot and his command has been just okay this spring. A high leg kick and an especially long stride add deception. There are plenty of videos on YouTube. Miscellany Keith Law (subs. req’d) and Baseball America ranked Manaea as the eighth and tenth best prospect in the draft in their latest rankings, respectively, but that was before yesterday’s shoulder and hip problems. The Yankees have three first round picks (26th, 32nd, 33rd), and for what it’s worth, Law said he’s gotten “the sense that they’d love to get one good college arm out of their three first-round selections” in his latest mock draft. He’ll have to fall quite a bit due to the injury concerns to be available when New York picks. Regardless of who drafts Manaea, they’ll be banking on their development staff turning him back into the guy he was on the Cape last summer. Post from: River Ave. Blues A New York Yankees blog2013 Draft: Sean Manaea

Series finale in Baltimore tonight with an off-day tomorrow before the weekend series in Tampa. Be nice to see a Score Truck sighting complete with fresh delivery of hits and runs. Our man Hiroki’s on the hill and boy he’s been so good I worry that he’s due to get his ass kicked. Curtis Granderson CF Robinson Cano 2B Vernon Wells LF Travis Hafner DH Lyle Overbay 1B David Adams 3B Ichiro Suzuki RF Reid Brignac SS Austin Romine C Ah, never mind my concern: Let’s Go Yank-ees!

Tonight's lineup: granderson 8 cano 4 wells 7 hafner dh Overbay 3 adams 5 ichiro 9 brignac 6 Romine 2 Kuroda 1 — Erik Boland (@eboland11) May 22, 2013 Brett Gardner and Jayson Nix sit in the series finale against Baltimore this evening. Gardner and Nix are both 0-3 vs. Jason Hammel while Ichiro Suzuki has found more success across a slightly less small sample size, going 9-20 off Hammel with two doubles. With Gardner sitting, Curtis Granderson gets the start in center field. Robinson Cano has done quite well for himself against Hammel. He is 10-32 with a couple of doubles and a home run. Vernon Wells and Travis Hafner have each hit two homers off Hammel in their careers. Here's to dingers tonight! #orioles lineup vs NYY: Mclouth 7 Machado 5 Markakis 9 jones DH Davis 3 Wieters 2 hardy 6 Dickerson 8 Casilla 4? Hammel RHP — Roch Kubatko (@masnRoch) May 22, 2013 Nick Markakis has enjoyed some SSS success off Hiroki Kuroda, going 4-11 in his career. Adam Jones is not far behind at 4-14 against Kuroda. As you may have heard, the Orioles have called up pitching prospect Kevin Gausman to start for them tomorrow. After watching what he did to the Thunder the other night, I can safely say I'm glad we're missing that one. On Memorial Day against the New York Mets, the Yankees and the rest of MLB will be wearing camo print uniforms with the proceeds from the sales of these uniforms going to MLB's veterans fund. As with most special uniform days, the design is... not very appealing, at least to me. You can check out what the jerseys will look like here and here. What do you think?

Granderson CF Cano 2B Wells LF Hafner DH Overbay 1B Adams 3B Ichiro RF Brignac SS Romine C Kuroda P I wonder if this game will go to extra innings like the previous two have. (I'm hoping not.)